Surgical management of entrapped percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty hardware

Entrapment and fracture of coronary angioplasty hardware are rare complications of percutaneous coronary artery interventions; however, when such incidents occur, they frequently require surgical management. Percutaneous retrieval should be attempted before surgical retrieval unless hemodynamic stability is a problem. Surgical intervention should focus on grafting the affected coronary vessel(s) and ensuring that there is no hardware in the aortic root that could serve as a nidus for thrombus formation. We present 3 cases from our recent experiences of entrapped, fractured hardware.